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Putthandu Valthukkal [Happy (Tamil) New Year]

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Happy New Year to all my family, tamil friends and other Indian friends celebrating the New Year today or in the next few days. And for those of you who didn’t know, this year is actually the year 2065 in the Hindu Calendar. In celebration of the New Year, the Delhi unit of Sanskar Bharati lit 2065 lamps at the banks of the Yamuna in New Delhi to welcome the rising sun of the New Year. I can only imagine what a sight it would have been to behold. I remember experiencing the Aarthi at the Ganges River and that in itself was a magical experience.

Anyway, isn’t it great being able to celebrate A New Year more than once in a year – more unkept resolutions to be made 🙂

Why just celebrate the New Year on the 1st of Jan? How about Sekhmet in January, Chinese New Year in January or February, Noruz in March, Tamil New Year in April, Buddhist New Year in May, Runic New Year in June, Armenian New Year in July, Shenshai New Year in August, Rosh Hashanah in September, Samhain in October, Deepavali in November (yes, some Indians celebrate this day as their New year), and Papal States New Year in December 🙂

So the Blogging Cops have been knocking on my door A LOT recently. It’s been more than a week since I blogged last. I want to EVERY SINGLE DAY – but life just sweeps me onto her magic carpet, sometimes only setting me down a long time later. I guess, I’ve just been caught up with my daily events.

So last weekend, I was at my eagerly-awaited library booksale (all 3 days) – but ofcourse just for a short time each day. The books are quite old, therefore some with really outdated content were being sold. There are few categories that are always ignored, the main one being the Computer Section – NO, we just don’t want to know how to use the Microsoft 16-bit operating environment introduced in the 80s. The smell in the warehouse gave me a headache – you know that stale book smell (not the nice bookshop smell) also similar-smelling to some old people’s homes? Anyway, I managed to grab quite a few books for about $20 – ranging from cookbooks (my favourite being the Encyclopedia for Creative Cooking – all 700+ pages of it) to parenting books to housekeeping/managing books to fiction books to just simply crazy books like “Wash Your Hair with Whipped Cream”, “Paint your house with powdered milk” (more about these books in another post. Maybe I should post a list of the titles I bought one day.

Besides this, we also picked up the latest addition to our family, SUBRAMANI 2. Notice any similarities between Subramani 2 and Subramani (our car during our wedding time?).

Subramani

Subramani 2

Hmmm – I wonder what type of cars Elan likes :). We managed to get this 2nd-hand car for a good deal from a man called Kanapathy (I defintiely took this as a good sign to get this car while Elan just gave the upward-heaven look with his eyes). In Singapore, we would take the car to the temple, where the priest actually does some prayers to ensure safe travel in this machine that will take us places through the years. And just before we drive away, the priest would put limes in front of the tyres for us to drive over them – signfying warding away of anything bad and prevention of accidents. Since we don’t have any temples here in Boise, I just said some prayers and placed the limes myself – after which Elan had to gas it a little to drive over those sturdy little limes. Check out the pictures closely – the before and the after 🙂

I now have Thakali to drive around during the weekdays just in case Divya starts chipping away at my block of sanity hehe. Ofcourse, the person now, even more thrilled than Elan about this car is Divya. The car is small – so she probably thinks it’s hers since she fits snugly in the seat – it’s just that she doesn’t know that she’ll never be riding in this car – unless we still have it in many, many years’ time.

That’s MY dear Thakali behind the new car, Subramani 2 🙂

The rest of the week was spent rather uneventfully. Yesterday was the first TRUE day of spring – it was divinely warm – not even a touch of cold in the air when we were in the park. Jackets were abandoned, flip flops were flopping, sun-hats were donned, legs were exposed……..It’s amazing how a blue sky and the sound of children in a park can do wonders for one’s soul.

Divya loves anything that is NOT hers – especially her Appu’s basketball boots

Divya squeals in delight all the way down the slide (notice the playground policeman on duty)

I love these shots of her when she isn’t focusing on the camera in my hands

I’m sure riding in the Subramani2 brings back good ‘ol (EXCITINGGGGG) dating memories hehhehehe.
Cutie Divya looks like she’s a pro at wearing oversized shoes. It’s Sarah’s favourite thing to do too, wearing all our shoes!
How I wish SUNNY DAYS are as pleasant here in BLISTERING HOT SINGAPORE as it is in Boise… Divya looks SOOO elated to be out!